Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Horrible! Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad!
Review: I loved the Matrix and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, but Johnny Mnemonic was pure trash. I wanted to leave the theater in the middle of it. I don't think I have ever hated a movie as much as I hated Johnny Mnemonic.
Rating:
Summary: Johnny Johnny Whoops Johnny
Review: This JUST RELEASED SPECIAL SUPERBIT version of this film (10/09/01), means that all available disc space is used to present the film supposedly at the very finest visual quality possible. The disc space is devoted to improving the resolution of the film. That means no extras, no bells and whistles, behind the scenes documentaries, commentaries, nothing, nada. Perhaps an extra disc of extra's would have been nice. . . but this release is not geared to please everyone, only the pickiest DVDophiles amongst us. If you like the film and you want to see and hear it better than you have ever been able to hear it before, this DVD is worth getting. There are no extras as all of the disc space is utilized in giving the highest possible bit rate possible. I hope some truly classic films will offered using the Superbit process in the future. I would also like to see an additional disc of extra material being offered for those films that have available extras. Johnny Mnemonic should have been a delightful camp-fest with some remarkable sequences full of colorful digital effects. An excellent pop-artist Robert Longo directed the film, and it's all based on famed cyber-punk/ science fiction writer William Gibson's short story. He even adapted it for the screen. The film to me is about as much fun as getting dumped off the internet just as your finishing writing a long e-mail you've not saved. I'd have to strain quite a bit to tell you something that is worthwhile in the film. The cast might look promising on paper, (Keanu, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi (BEAT)Kitano, Henry Rollins, and Udo Kier) but nobody is particularly good in the film. There's a pretty interesting sequence when Johnny quite literally surfs the internet. It's got some dazzling visuals for a few minutes. Well, that's about all I can come up with. The plot sets up one long chase scene. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny, a human computer information courier. The safest way to transport corporate information from computer to computer is by implanting the information into a chip inside a human couriers brain. Johnny wants to retire from the courier business so he takes on a more dangerous than usual assignment which also means he needs to complete his assignment in 48 hours or his brain shorts out and he becomes a vegetable. There's some good guys who help him try get to where he needs to go, and there's the bad guys who want to download the information from him. Most of the futuristic sets look too cheap to be convincing. The dialogue stops just short of being hilariously bad, which means it isn't quite bad enough to be fun. The film doesn't have the right tone or pace to be a fun, guilty-pleasure type camp-fest either. There's quite a few similarities to TRON , and the far superior The Matrix that might be of some interest to completists. Still someone out there likes this thing. One of them obviously works within the studio and decided this was a good film to give the full SUPERBIT treatment to. I'm not sure exactly why…. But they have done it. The DVD Image SUPERBIT TITLES are produced by a team of Sony Pictures Digital video, sound and mastering technicians and engineers. Superbit DVDs are encoded at twice their normal bit rate which improves video resolution and gives you a choice of both Dolby 5.1 and DTS audio. They are fully compatible with region 1 DVD players already in use. Utilizing more space on the disc for bit-rates improves the over-all picture resolution. It's not a dramatic difference but the image will look a little sharper and there will be additional detail in low light situations. It also means there is less compression of detail being used which should cut down on visible edge enhancement, what is called mosquito noise, haloing,artifacting, and color pinging or shifting. This also means grain and other imperfections on the film stock might be somewhat amplified as well. The disc type is a DVD-9 (a single sided and double-layered disc with a capacity of 7.95 gigabits). Once again, it appears the digitally stored transfer that was used to create the previous edition of Johnny Mnemonic seems to be used. There are some blemishes on the print, and when it was originally transferred the black levels were not adjusted to the levels they should have been which resulted in some blacks appearing grayish. This results in selected scenes being robber of some added visual dynamics they would have had since the Superbit process increases the details over all. The film looks very good, but if a new corrected film transfer had also been done, the results could have improved even more. It's even more noticeable on this version, that not a lot of creativity went into the sound mix on this film. Brad Fiedel's electronic score utilizes the surround capabilities of a good home theater system much better than any of the sound effects in the film do. The center speakers are the primary focus of most of the sound and dialogue in the film. There is not much punch to any of the explosions or low bass effects used in the film. All of the sound (unless intentionally distorted) is clear and well separated.
Rating: 
Summary: Cyberpunk is here to stay!!
Review: This is classic sci-fi... So what it didn't have a huge budget or anything. They did a great job!! Keanu is great as Johnny ~ the prototype NEO of the future... It's funny, it's got action and some good quotes and at the end of the day it has WILLIAM GIBSON to thank for the vision of the future. Keanu Reeves does a good turn and as always, gives his all, simulating the demise of Johnny's looks, getting thinner and thinner as the overload in storage capacity takes it's toll... Good all round cast with Ice-T giving a great performance. BUY THIS MOVIE ~ ALSO IT, HAS A CRACKINGLY GOOD SOUNDTRACK SO BUY THAT AS WELL...
Rating: 
Summary: Matrix - lovers
Review: If you liked the Matrix - you Will LIKE this movie - notice I didn't say love. Usual scenario - good looking guy takes a risk gets in trouble and has to make friends and fight his way to save the world - Ice cube - as always plays a pretty good part. worth at least renting.
Rating: 
Summary: Prelude to the Matrix
Review: That's what this film is, the prelude to the Matrix. Johnny is almost campy. Tolerable and sometimes engaging. Henry Rollins actually turns in one of the best performances. Eh, I didn't return the DVD, which is more than I can say for some other films. A little Road Warrior tinge to it as well. Overall, not horrible. I'd have given it two-and-a-half stars if I could have figured out how to enter a half star. -Drew Dixon, 4-11-01
Rating:
Summary: this awful movie violated me!
Review: this movie is pure junk. this is a awful, awful, terrible movie. most hollywood sci-fi crud doesn't bother me anymore, i just don't watch it. but the short story Johnny Mnemonic along with the rest of burning chrome is one of my favorite books. so i had to eventually see it. the special effects and costumes are miserable. ice-t as "J-BONE"(?!why not just call him ice-t) is himself (what else does he do) as the leader of the loteks. who in this movie are now the same new-wave/hip-hop/punk-rock kids that he worked with in the movie "breakin". the sets look like all the other awful movies that are sopposed to look cyber punk (strange days, etc.) the only interesting part in the movie is street preacher played by dolph lundgren. i didn't even recognize him until i read somewhere that he was in this movie and i watched it again. watched it again? yes i did, on cable. the batteries in my remote where dead. i tried to convince myself that mabey if i lowered my expectations a little and just tried to enjoy the flick, it couldn't be that bad. it was.
Rating:
Summary: Great intentions... poor execution
Review: The basic storyline is quite interesting but the story itself is less than interesting. The film has potential it just is never realized.
Rating: 
Summary: Hit me!!!!.....................Pow!!.... i didn't mean it !!
Review: Ithought this was actually quite an enjoyable film, compared to what most critics say. The films basic blot is decent enough but just badly delt with by first time director Robert Longo, but i did find that the lighting and general atmosphere of the film was good. Keanu Reeves was hammier than a joint of gammon and judging by this you wouldn't think he was an actor at all, but recent performance's from him in films such as the gift have been very good. The support cast is quite impressive including a majorly underused Dolph Lundgren who is superbly derranged as the psychopathic preacher (its jesus time!!) but five minutes of screen time is all he gets. Overall this is good enough but with a more proffesional touch it could have been great.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Movie
Review: Alright, let me start out by saying that yes, it didn't have the largest budget of any film in history. This being said you can now start to focus on the film. People have grown to expect that every sci-fi film after the Matrix should have a huge budget and this is simply not true. Johnny Mneumonic has some cool special effects that look realistic rather than obviously fake, it has s well-done story, and the acting job is perfect for this kind of film. Its a dark future with technology we are only beginning to explore and its a world where corporations rule instead of the government. As in all sci-fi films you simply have to accept the few basic rules the film throws at you like the fact that the world WILL LOOK DIFFERENT than it does currently and the people/technology/customs will change with that. After that prepare to have a wild ride through William Gibson's vision of the future.
Rating:
Summary: whacky
Review: I loved this movie. Very strange. I can still hear Keanu Reeves saying "Hit me!" Talk about information overload. If you're a programmer watch the movie just for that line.
| 
